The mainstream media’s alarming reports about the Civil War in Iraq seem to be the “last and final” call for the U.S. and the U.K. to prepare an emergency exit strategy.
What is happening in Iraq now had been predicted right at the beginning when the myopic foreign intervention began in that cursed country. Even CIA had in confidential notes clearly stated the possibility of Civil War in Iraq.
If there is a delay in exiting the repercussions would be disastrous. Remember, we are witnessing a fratricide…an inevitability in this part of the world when a powerful leader is removed from the scene.
There are two clear (face saving) options, although belated. Hand over Iraq to the United Nations…it is never, never too late to apologise and make amends.
Or, as I have suggested many a times, work out a deal with Saddam Hussein so that some sort of truce can emerge between the Shias and Sunnis. If you look up the history of West Asia all sorts of permutations and combinations have worked effectively between the Europeans and the natives (and nothing is below dignity).
Even if nothing works out…Just get out!!! Because this is the last chance to save foriegn troops bathing in the blood of Muslim brothers who wish to annihilate one another. And the U.S. and the U.K. would earn the eternal wrath of the entire Muslim population in the world (enough damage has already been done).
Here are the media reports:
A civil war between Sunni and Shia Muslims is spreading rapidly through central Iraq, with each community seeking revenge for the latest massacre, reports The Independent.
“While the White House and Downing Street still refuse to use the phrase ‘civil war’, Iraqis in the centre of the country have no doubt what is happening. Baghdad’s mortuary alone received 1,595 bodies in June, and it has got worse since then.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) a suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives blew himself up outside the golden-domed mosque in Kufa, killing at least 59 and injuring more than 130 Shia.
“In the past 10 days, while the world has been absorbed by the war in Lebanon, sectarian massacres have started to take place on an almost daily basis, leading observers to fear a level of killing approaching that of Rwanda immediately before the genocide of 1994. On a single spot on the west bank of the Tigris river in north Baghdad, between 10 and 12 bodies have been drifting ashore every day.
“In Kufa, a city on the Euphrates 90 miles south of Baghdad, the suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a dusty square 100 yards from a Shia shrine at 7.30am.
“The severe escalation in sectarian killings started nine days ago when black-clad Shia militiamen sealed off the largely Sunni al-Jihad district in west Baghdad and slaughtered every Sunni they identified, killing more than 40 of them after glancing at their identity cards. Since then there has been a tit-for-tat massacre almost every day.”
CNN has published a summary of the TIME magazine cover story: “Although the recent violence has been sparked by a single act of provocation, it comes in the context of a history of Shiite-Sunni enmity. The roots of the sectarian divide lie in a schism that arose shortly after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century.
“Under Saddam Hussein, communal hostilities in Iraq were suppressed, their very existence denied. Beneath the surface, though, relations between the two sects have always been tainted by prejudice and discrimination.
“Now, given the failure to head off last week’s conflagration, U.S. hopes of averting an ignominious defeat in Iraq hinge on whether it can bring the fighting to an end.
“The biggest fear is that the breakdown of order could draw neighboring countries into the conflict, with Iran intervening on behalf of the Shiites and Arab states supporting the Sunnis.”
The Los Angeles Times has this to say about ‘civil’ war in Iraq: “Retaliatory massacres by gunmen and bombers linked to rival Muslim sects have left more than 130 people dead across Iraq over the last two days, the latest casualties of what some politicians now are calling an undeclared civil war.
“Many members of Iraq’s political class spoke gravely of the massacres and bombings of the last few days, even as two U.S. Cabinet officials visiting Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone this week touted Iraq as a potential bonanza for private investors.
“Since the beginning of May, attacks by Sunni Arab and Shiite Muslims have claimed the lives of more than 6,000 Iraqi civilians, according to a United Nations study and Iraqi police reports.
“The Kufa blast, coming on the heels of mass killings and bombings attributed to Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia and its Sunni Arab enemies, brought the battle to the Shiite cleric’s doorstep, igniting fears of a fresh wave of reprisal killings.
” ‘The message is clear, and the message confirms the sectarian differences,’ said Fadhil Sharih, a leader of the Sadr movement. ‘It seems clear that it’s been moving toward the direction of civil war.’
“U.S. and Iraqi government leaders have argued that the 150,000-strong foreign troop presence has kept the country from descending into full-scale civil war. But many Iraqi officials fear the threshold has been crossed.”
“When does a conflict become a war?” asks Kirsten Broomhall .
“Mainstream media have talked for some time now about the sectarian violence in Iraq verging on civil war. What measures are used to decide when an internal struggle becomes a civil war – length of conflict, death toll, number of fighters, geographic spread, number or severity of weapons? And what of the fighting between Israel and the Palestinians, and now Hizbullah in Lebanon?
“The definition of war in the Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary is, ‘armed fighting between two or more countries or groups’. By this seemingly simple definition, both Iraq and Israel should be at war.
“So why the reluctance by the media to utter the word in these situations? And why the comparative ease of use of terms coined by politicians, or their speechwriters, such as ‘war on terror’ or ‘war on drugs’?”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.